Latest 4-Day Workweek Study Shows Mental Health Benefits, But Will It Catch On Where You Work?

Forbes

4 days ago

The largest study ever performed on the four-day workweek reveals that employees gain mental health ... More benefits, but critics question the results. So, does this mean a shortened workweek could catch on where you work?
The concept of a 4-day workweek isn't new, but with the increasing trend of 'liquid working,' and the push for more work-life balance and flexibility, four-day workweeks are growing in popularity. And so is the scientific study. Up until this week, there were very few large-scale trials to measure its success. Now, the largest-scale research to date reports groundbreaking findings that corroborate the previous smaller studies.
Research Shows Benefits Of The 4-Day Workweek
Around 27 to 30 companies—like Kickstarter, Panasonic, Awin and Digible—have already implemented the four-day week in a variety of different ways, and the number of other companies jumping onboard is rising. In many instances, employees say that the shorter workweek leads to better productivity and less employee turnover.
Co-founder and CEO of Monograph, Robert Yuen told me in 2023 that hands-down employees need more time, which is why his company operates on a four-day workweek schedule. 'A four-day workweek gives employees the space to take care of themselves, providing them space for personal development,' he argues. 'Since this tech startup launched a four-day workweek in 2019, employee satisfaction has reached an all-time high.'
In March of 2024, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders gave momentum to the four-day workweek movement in Congress when he introduced legislation reducing the workweek from 40 to 32 hours without a pay cut. But impressions are one thing and objective science is another.
So what does the science show? One study in the Academy of Management Journal found that the four-day workweek does not reduce labor productivity and may in fact increase it. A larger study in the United Kingdom in June of 2022 launched the largest four-day workweek pilot at that time, including more than 3,300 workers and 70 British companies.
Overall, the trial found no productivity loss associated with a four-day work week pilot program with some companies reporting significant improvements. The U.K. study found that the four-day week frees up employee personal time, boosts their well-being and makes them more productive during working hours. Around 46% of respondents say their business productivity has 'maintained around the same level,' while 34% report that it has 'improved slightly' and 15% say it has 'improved significantly.'
A new study published this week in Nature Human Behaviour is the biggest trial of four-day a workweek, with participants from nearly 3,000 employees at 141 companies and six countries over a six-month period. Results show that workers are happier, have less burnout, increased job satisfaction and improved mental and physical health. The findings also reveal that employees are just as productive working a four-day workweek.
On July 23rd of this year, Pipedrive released its Annual State of Sales & Marketing Report, based on responses from 1,000 professionals across 85 countries. Findings showed 4-day workweeks are linked to better sales results and higher satisfaction. Sales professionals on 4-day workweeks are eight percent more likely to hit quotas and report the highest satisfaction with work-life balance. Those logging overtime (over 75% of respondents) see worse performance, showing that more hours don't equal better results.
Critics Question The Latest 4-Day Workweek Study
I imagine many of you reading this good news are excited about the possibility of enjoying a four-day workweek where you work. I hate to burst your bubble, but the truth is, there are methodological issues with the earlier studies. It's encouraging to see the positive findings but also important to point out that the earlier studies are mostly self-reports with an absence of objective measures.
Isaac Kohen, founder and CPO at Teramind, a leading provider of workforce analytics for insider risk and productivity, questions the validity of the latest study. Kohen told me by email that the absence of an objective productivity measurement is a critical gap in the study and could mislead organizations into making costly operational decisions based on incomplete data.
'Employee self-reporting on productivity is valuable for understanding sentiment, but it can't provide the granular insights businesses need to justify such significant changes to stakeholders and boards.' Kohen explains. 'When 90% of companies chose to continue their four-day schedules, were they making this decision based on hard metrics or just improved morale? Real productivity measurement requires analyzing actual work patterns like application usage, task completion rates, and workflow efficiency.'
So what needs to be fixed so we have more reliable data that increase your chances of a shorter workweek? Kohen weighs in on that issue. 'Organizations, in order to properly evaluate productivity of 5-day vs 4-day weeks, need to establish baseline metrics during traditional five-day schedules, then continuously monitor and compare performance throughout four-day implementations,' he advises. 'According to a 2023 survey conducted by Zippia, a good productivity percentage is somewhere between 70-75% and the average worker only spends 4 hours and 12 minutes actively working during an 8-hour shift.'
He notes that without objective data, organizations risk implementing compressed schedules based on optimism rather than evidence. "Feeling more productive and being more productive aren't always the same thing, and only comprehensive measurement can bridge that perception gap to determine whether four-day work weeks truly serve both employee well-being and business objectives," Kohen concludes.
Sofia Passova, former rocket scientist and founder and CEO of StereoLOGIC, also cautions the importance of testing business processes before making the switch to a shortened workweek. 'The goal of a shortened workweek is to find ways to help employees work smarter, not harder,' Passova asserts. 'And the best way to do that is to identify ways to improve, streamline and maximize the value of their output through data-enabled analysis of the processes and tasks that determine their day-to-day activities.'
A Final Wrap On Your Chances Of A 4-Day Workweek
Many workers believe shorter workweeks create greater structure around work and add a free weekday to relax, handle life matters and enjoy work-life balance. A 4-day workweek where you work could be a favorable response to the employee burnout dilemma that continues to grow, that is, if the shorter week can prioritize downtime without sacrificing performance and costly operational decisions.
The answer is a large-scale study (compressing five days of work into four) that employs more objective measurements in addition to self-reports and shows results that satisfy both worker well-being and business objectives. Clearly, with more science backing up the efficacy of the 4-day workweek and legislation introduced in congress, the concept of an abbreviated workweek will catch on in the United States and could become a permanent fixture where you work sooner than you think—if not in 2025, perhaps in the not-too-distant future.